Grand Prix Final 2008

Grand Prix Final Entries

MEN:
1 Patrick CHAN CAN
2 Takahiko KOZUKA JPN
3 Johnny WEIR USA
4 Brian JOUBERT FRA
5 Jeremy ABBOTT USA
6 Tomas VERNER CZE

LADIES:
1 Yu-Na KIM KOR
2 Joannie ROCHETTE CAN
3 Mao ASADA JPN
4 Carolina KOSTNER ITA
5 Yukari NAKANO JPN
6 Miki ANDO JPN

PAIRS:
1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER
2 Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG CHN
3 Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS
4 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN
5 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR
6 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV

DANCE:
1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS
3 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA
4 Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS
5 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA
6 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA

It's soooo sad watching GPF without Daisuke...

1st day results

MEN SP:
1 Takahiko KOZUKA JPN 83.90 47.00 36.90 7.80 7.20 7.30 7.40 7.20 0.00 #5
2 Jeremy ABBOTT USA 78.26 42.46 35.80 7.10 6.95 7.20 7.15 7.40 0.00 #2
3 Brian JOUBERT FRA 74.55 39.80 35.75 7.40 6.50 7.50 7.10 7.25 1.00 #3
4 Johnny WEIR USA 72.50 37.50 36.00 7.35 6.80 7.30 7.20 7.35 1.00 #4
5 Tomas VERNER CZE 69.34 37.34 34.00 7.05 6.30 6.80 6.90 6.95 2.00 #1
6 Patrick CHAN CAN 68.00 33.30 36.70 7.60 7.30 6.95 7.40 7.45 2.00 #6

Great job, Takahiko! He has both the highest TES and PCS. He really deserves the first place.
Joubert fell on 3Lz, Weir on 3A (maybe downgraded?), Verner on 4T of the combo and during steps (then he did the combo instead of the triple), Chan on 3A and on 3(maybe2)Lz...
What are they doing!?!?!

LADIES SP:
1 Yu-Na KIM KOR 65.94 35.50 30.44 7.80 7.30 7.65 7.65 7.65 0.00 #6
2 Mao ASADA JPN 65.38 35.70 29.68 7.65 7.10 7.45 7.55 7.35 0.00 #4
3 Yukari NAKANO JPN 62.08 34.20 27.88 7.15 6.70 7.00 7.05 6.95 0.00 #2
4 Carolina KOSTNER ITA 55.88 28.80 28.08 7.30 6.75 7.05 6.95 7.05 1.00 #3
5 Miki ANDO JPN 55.44 28.60 27.84 7.15 6.60 7.00 7.10 6.95 1.00 #1
6 Joannie ROCHETTE CAN 50.48 23.00 27.48 7.20 6.55 6.75 7.00 6.85 0.00 #5

PAIRS SP:
1 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER 70.14 39.66 30.48 7.80 7.40 7.70 7.50 7.70 0.00 #6
2 Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG CHN 68.34 40.22 29.12 7.50 7.00 7.35 7.25 7.30 1.00 #5
3 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN 66.24 37.52 28.72 7.35 6.90 7.25 7.20 7.20 0.00 #3
4 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR 64.08 36.44 27.64 7.10 6.65 6.90 7.05 6.85 0.00 #2
5 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV RUS 61.56 34.40 27.16 6.95 6.50 6.75 6.85 6.90 0.00 #1
6 Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS 55.42 28.50 27.92 7.15 6.80 6.90 7.10 6.95 1.00 #4

ORIGINAL DANCE:
1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 60.35 29.80 30.55 8.00 7.90 8.15 8.15 8.05 0.00 #6
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 59.33 29.80 29.53 7.75 7.65 7.80 7.80 7.85 0.00 #5
3 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 57.89 29.90 27.99 7.25 7.20 7.40 7.40 7.55 0.00 #4
4 Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 57.33 28.30 29.03 7.65 7.45 7.80 7.70 7.65 0.00 #1
5 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 55.89 28.00 27.89 7.30 7.25 7.40 7.35 7.40 0.00 #2

I am surprised by all these falls. The jetlag??? certainly. And it is more surprising from Johnny Weir.
The only short program I found is Brian Joubert : his program start badly with 4+2 combo (usually this combo is 4+3) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNDUCpuUK4

I too missed Daisuke today, glorydave. It must be hard for him sitting at home watching the competition!

So happy for Kozuka though - he was great! Mao was great! Yu-Na, goodness me what pressure on her young shoulders!!! I have never seen so many stuffed animals on the ice!!!

Cutest moment of the night was definitely this one: Brian and his Jou-bear!

http://gall.dcinside.com/list.php?id=figureskating&no=506818&page=4

Congratulations to the winners!
Here you can watch the scores: http://www.isuresults.com/results/gpf0809/index.htm

LADIES:
1 Mao ASADA JPN 188.55 2 1
2 Yu-Na KIM KOR 186.35 1 2
3 Carolina KOSTNER ITA 168.01 4 4
4 Joannie ROCHETTE CAN 166.36 6 3
5 Yukari NAKANO JPN 161.93 3 6
6 Miki ANDO JPN 158.25 5 5

PAIRS:
1 Qing PANG / Jian TONG CHN 191.49 3 1
2 Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG CHN 188.22 2 2
3 Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY GER 185.09 1 3
4 Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Stanislav MOROZOV UKR 175.83 4 5
5 Yuko KAWAGUCHI / Alexander SMIRNOV RUS 167.45 6 4
6 Maria MUKHORTOVA / Maxim TRANKOV RUS 153.16 5 6

I really love Pang/Tong FP. Morozov choreographed it and he used also Tango de Roxane and Concerto de Aranjuez... This program reminds me Daisuke so much!

DANCE:
1 Isabelle DELOBEL / Olivier SCHOENFELDER FRA 156.10 1 1
2 Oksana DOMNINA / Maxim SHABALIN RUS 152.95 2 2
3 Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE USA 148.04 5 3
4 Federica FAIELLA / Massimo SCALI ITA 145.12 3 4
WD Tanith BELBIN / Benjamin AGOSTO USA 4
WD Jana KHOKHLOVA / Sergei NOVITSKI RUS

MEN:
1 Jeremy ABBOTT USA 237.72 2 1
2 Takahiko KOZUKA JPN 224.63 1 3
3 Johnny WEIR USA 215.50 4 2
4 Tomas VERNER CZE 206.65 5 4
5 Patrick CHAN CAN 205.16 6 5
WD Brian JOUBERT FRA 3

Jeremy Abbot skated a wonderfull FP!
I'm very happy for Takahiko. I hope he can skate at this level all the season and do a great work at world championships with Nobunari Oda. Japan needs 3 places for Olympic Games...

Thanks for all the updates, glorydave!

It seems like this was a great event despite the withdrawals due to injury or illness which were disappointing. As always, the Korean audience was terrific as well.

I missed Daisuke terribly too. The Grand Prix Final is just not the same without him. It's so hard to be patient...

Congratulations to all the medalists of NHK-Trophy!

There were some lovely performances.

And I agree, it's so hard to be patient.

The "Jou-bear" moment was indeed funny

Thank you very much for the information, glorydave!!

Congratulations to all the medalist!!

Mao and Yuna, great rivalry!!
I love Jeremy Abbott's EX very much. (his last season's SP)
For Takahiko, to skate last at such a big competition was a good experience.

hsuhs wrote:

The "Jou-bear" moment was indeed funny

Yay!! Sometimes he is very cute. I really hope his injury is not so serious and can come back soon (at least Euro).

I felt sorry for Miki...... However she looked happy to try 4S in a competition. She must have worked very hard to prepare the new music after CoC.
I have a question about underrotation.
Why do skaters get - GOE on their underrotaion jumps even though they land them cleanly? Is it due of overrotation???? But I thisnk it's too obvious...

hsuhs wrote:

And I agree, it's so hard to be patient.

So true... I felt the same as you all...........

I haven't really watched anything but I did check results (although I almost didn't even do that partly because of the lack of Daisuke). I'm happy for all the gold medalists (especially Pang and Tong who have struggled with injury, illness, and just being out of shape for the past 2 seasons). I'm also very happy Takahiko did so well for his first Grand Prix Final but I'm sorry for Patrick. And also I have to give credit to the ice dancers who were able to survive and I hope that the ones who are hurt or ill will have a good recovery.

miyu wrote:

I have a question about underrotation.
Why do skaters get - GOE on their underrotaion jumps even though they land them cleanly? Is it due of overrotation???? But I thisnk it's too obvious...

miyu, the judges are required to give -GOE for downgraded jumps no matter how good they look to the naked eye. It double punishes the skaters which is why Miki and Yukari scored so low despite looking clean to the naked eye.

miyu wrote:

I felt sorry for Miki...... However she looked happy to try 4S in a competition. She must have worked very hard to prepare the new music after CoC.
I have a question about underrotation.
Why do skaters get - GOE on their underrotaion jumps even though they land them cleanly? Is it due of overrotation???? But I thisnk it's too obvious...

I agree, miyu. Miki looked quite happy and satisfied when she finished her LP. She really must have worked hard to have an entirely new program in such short time.

Underrotations are a plague of figure skating these days. Jumps get downgraded very often. If a jump is underrotated, the landing isn't considered clean anymore, but cheated. And the negative GOE rule is applied. Is that what you mean?

Thank you very much for your explanations, swandie and hsuhs.

So any underrotated jump will be given -GOE by judges. Is it correct?

Perhaps I don't know it because I haven't watched ladies copmetitions much intensely before.
In men's competitions we don't see underrotated jumps such often and mainly it happens on a quad try which usually ends up with fall, stepping out or shaky landing. So I have thought those -GOE was given to such messy landings.

swandie wrote:

It double punishes the skaters

Yes indeed... Did you see Miki's 4S try? The jump itself was very beautiful, I thought. It was a pity.

miyu wrote:

So any underrotated jump will be given -GOE by judges. Is it correct?

Yes, that's right.

Here's the rules specifying that kind of penalties, page 8:
http://isu.sportcentric.net/db//files/serve.php?id=934

Thank you very much, hsuhs!

So I have to use "DG" for "<" jump. And both of DG and UR (not DG) jump will get -GOE. DG is such a disaster...